Like most you, I am self-isolating.  I’ve always thought of myself as a “home-body”.  Happy to be home working on my quilts and enjoying my own company.  But this is really hard!  I’m surprised at how many times a day I catch myself saying “I’ll just pop out to the store because I need (fill in the blank!)”.  I’m telling my kids to pay attention to what is going on in the world because these are historical moments we are all experiencing.  Let’s be kind and compassionate as we navigate these uncertain waters together.

On February 29, our granddaughter Briar was born.  A leap year baby!  She came into the world at 1 am in the middle of a snowstorm.  At 6 am of the same morning, I was pulling out of the drive-way, packed up and ready for the 12 hour drive to Williamsburg to teach at the Academy of Applique.  So, of course, the first thing we did when I arrived home a week later was to get in the car and go visit the wee one and her awesome Moms.

The pups were happy to see me:)

I have been working on Briar’s quilt for a few months.  It is Dolly Days by Brandywine Designs.

I started by making all of the outfits that go around the outside.  This was fun!  I used 2 different background, a pink stripe and a pink tone-on-tone.  I had bought a bundle of Apple Butter by Tilda (fat eights) at Quilt Canada last year and thought this was the perfect project.  Here are some of the outside blocks.

Some of the outfits called for buttons, but I think that would be a no-no!  So I made tiny circles for the buttons and appliqued them on.  I even fussy cut a few!

So once all the outfits were stitched, I had to trim them down to the correct size, which is something I always do.  Cut my backgrounds big to allow for shrinkage and then trim to the correct size.  I made my self a template of the correct size, including seam allowance and drew a few guidelines on it.  I simply placed this template on the design and “eyeballed” it.  Easy Peasy.  I then put marks on the background at the corners of the template.  Then I used my ruler and rotary cutter to trim the blocks.

Can you see that I have used 2 different background, and alternated them?  So subtle:)

So now I could start working on the little girl in the centre, but I was a little stuck.  I knew I wanted the quilt to be pink, but if I made the background pink, the skin tone of the little girl wouldn’t show up.  So I went through my stash and found some of the same white and turquoise polka dot that I used for my grandson’s quilt.  By the way, Spencer is 5 months old now and quite a cutie!

As you can see she started out with turquoise socks, but i wasn’t really feeling it, even though the socks and shoes were stitched in place.

I switched her socks to pink and auditioned some fabrics for her under clothes.  I probably put way too much thought into this, but that is what we do!

Isn’t she sweet?

Til next time…

Kerry

What can I say about my experiences teaching Prepared Edge Applique at the Academy of Applique?  It was awesome, inspiring and exhausting (but in a good way!).  Teaching at the Academy is the highlight of my year.  To be surrounded by fellow lovers of applique is so inspiring and recharges my creative batteries.  If you have never attended the Academy, please give some thought to attending next year’s Academy.  You won’t be disappointed:)  Here are a few photos from the 2 classes I taught, Southwest Succulents, and Yellow Finches.  I was blown away by the student’s fabric choices and how each vase had a different “feel”.

Here are some pictures from the Yellow Finch class.

Here are a couple of eager students (below). Donna (on the right side of photo) has never tried prepared edge before.  Her first (!) attempt at a circle is in the photo below.  Are you as impressed as I am?  Wow!

It is always exciting to see some completed projects from previous classes.  Thanks, Pat, for sharing her Rose of Sharon, a class from last year.  Pat hand quilted her masterpiece and it is stunning.

And Peggy’s project from last year is fabulous!  Also hand quilted.  Inspiring:)

Here is a mother/daughter quilting duo.  So nice to see the next generation discovering the joy of creating something beautiful.

So, in the photo below, you can see that the leaves in this project are all “split”.  That means that each leaf has 2 pieces, a light green and a dark green, or in my sample, green and mauve.  I love the look of split leaves, but I have struggled in the past, trying to get a nice smooth point that is not all bulky and yucky.  So I came up with this method that I shared with my class, and I am happy to share with you.

In the class, I provided 2 copies of the freezer paper templates for the leaves.  So I prepped the freezer paper as usual, with a blank sheet of freezer paper underneath to create a thick template.  Here are both identical templates.

Cut both out, but leave one “whole” (don’t cut down the middle).  The other one can be cut into 2 templates.  Set the “whole” one aside for now.

Iron both of the “cut apart” templates onto the back of desired fabrics.  Cut out, leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance all the way around.

Now, prep the centre line only on the mauve piece.

Pop the template out and mark the top and bottom of the template with a marker that you can see on the front of the piece.  Set this mauve piece aside for now.

Take the template off the back of the green  fabric and place it on the front, leaving 1/4″ around.

Mark the centre line, and the top and bottom of the template.

Okay, now put a few dots of glue on the prepped edge of the mauve section and place it on the green section, using the  lines as a placement guide. 

Stitch the mauve section to the green section.

Flip the stitched leaf over and place the “whole” template, lining up the top of the template and the line of stitching.

So, now, you can go ahead and prep both sides of the template as you normally would.

Voila!  A perfect split leaf!

Til next time…

Kerry